PISCATAWAY — With controversy swirling around her, Rutgers University athletic director Julie Hermann held a telephone conference call with reporters this afternoon in which she denied she ever abused players while a volleyball coach at the University of Tennessee.

Hermann said she never called players "whores" and she is unsure why her turmoil with the team in the 1990s is coming up now.

"I don't know what their motivation is 17 years later," Hermann said, answering questions from four reporters in the 10-minute conference call.

"Am I an intense coach? I'm absolutely an intense coach as many coaches are. But there is a big canyon between being super-intense and abuse. And this was not an abusive environment for these women," Hermann said.

A Star-Ledger story published Sunday detailed the players' grievances against Hermann, which included a letter signed by the entire volleyball team accusing her of verbal and mental abuse. Hermann resigned as the team's coach.

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Hermann was hired by Rutgers to help rebuild its sports program after basketball coach Mike Rice was fired in April after video emerged of him hitting and shouting gay slurs at players at practices. Critics, including several state lawmakers, have questioned whether Hermann is the right person to lead Rutgers' sports program considering her past.

Hermann said she has no plans to resign.

"I never considered withdrawing because I feel very qualified to lead Rutgers into the future and into the transition of the Big Ten," Hermann said. "And I do feel the support of the Rutgers community."

The experience with the University of Tennessee volleyball team inspired Hermann to call on "subject-matter experts" to help her teams when she was an administrator at Louisville. The experts can help deal with problems with players that coaches are not equipped to deal with themselves, she said.

Hermann reiterated that she had no memory of her players writing the scathing letter accusing her of mental and verbal abuse at the University of Tennessee and it never came up when she interviewed for the Rutgers job.

"I never heard of a letter," Hermann said.

However, Hermann said she has discussed the revelation of the abuse allegations with Rutgers over the last few days.

"I've had dialogue with quite a bit of the leadership of Rutgers," Hermann said.